Cardboard boxes (containers) of different sizes are used widely to ship products. One type of cardboard box used for shipping is a corrugated fiberboard box. Among its many uses, corrugated boxes may be used by manufacturers of products to ship products to retail distributors or end users, and used by the general public to ship gifts and other items to friends and relatives. The users of these corrugated boxes prefer a container that can securely hold goods during shipment and which can be easily and neatly opened by the receiving party. In addition to these desirable features, the manufactures and purchasers of corrugated boxes prefer a box with an opening system that can be cheaply and reliably fabricated. Typically, the manufacturers of corrugated boxes incorporate opening systems or mechanisms into the boxes during their manufacture. Examples of commonly used opening systems include perforation zip strips, reinforced tear strips, stitched-in rip cord, and so forth.
Zip strips includes a strip of the container material substantially separated from the remainder of the container material by a plurality of generally parallel perforation lines, slits or other openings. These openings are positioned on either side of the strip such that removal of the strip opens the container. Typically, one end of the strip includes a tab or other feature that is configured to be grasped and pulled by a user. Pulling the tab tears the strip along the generally parallel openings on either side to separate the strip from the remainder of the box.
Reinforced tear strip includes a pair of spaced tear bands, formed of relatively non-tearable material, secured in parallel relation to the inside surface of the container side wall, along the entire length of the wall portion to be opened. A pair of spaced-apart guide strip elements, also arranged in parallel, may be provided on the outside surface of the container. The guide strips define between them a relatively wide section of container wall, which forms the tear strip portion. A reinforced grip portion attached to the tear bands is provided at one end of the wall. Pulling the grip portion causes the wide strip-like section of the wall to be torn away to open the box.
An opening system with a rip cord uses two strings which are stitched or sewn together through the layers of the corrugated material that forms the box. The rip cord severs the box into two sections as the stitching is pulled from the container.
These commonly used opening systems often break or tear during opening, resulting in the box being partially opened and requiring additional effort to complete the opening. Additionally, some of these systems may be expensive to manufacture. Thus, a need exists for an improved system for opening a cardboard box that overcomes the problems of known systems.